Entries in short track
(11)

Wow. Pain. It was felt in droves last night to the extent that I thought I was gonna keel over and be seriously sick. Last night was short track and I went out with big eyes but the stomach couldn't handle it. Not enough bike time these last few weeks...let alone cross eyed intervals.

The course as put on by the CU'sters was again, excellent. They know exactly how to work the most out of that dirt pile. The earlier races were in a dust bowl but by the time we raced, the light rains had started which actually cooled things down and the dust was gone but made it hard to ride wheels as the mud was collecting and spraying. I guess that's incentive to stay out front.

I got in 5th after the gun and trie dto follow Brady, Matt P and Brian F's wheel but 1 lap of that game and it was curtains. Sitting in never allowed my heart rate to come down either as I cranked out roughly 177bpm average and still started creeping backwards. So, all said and done, I recorded a big fat goose egg last night with a DNF. I felt absolutely horrible and while my motto has always been: 'you finish no matter what', I broke my promise in literal fear that I was going to be sick. I love the early season....

Good training none the less and I thank you Nick for yelling that to me, mate. More means more right now until I need less to mean more. Got me?

Week 2(for me) of the Short Track series, sports fans. The thunder and lightning was just dangling over our heads last night but the rains never came to create the mud-bath the first week saw in week 1 at the CU Short Track series at the lovely dirt pile...a.k.a. the Research Center.

I rolled down and prepped for the men's A race at 7:10 and found that the CU folks had built yet another super fast and jump riddled course. Perfect. I had a ball warming up on the course, jumping some of the ol' dirt piles and by 7 felt decent....even for not having the training in my legs. With no rain, the Research Park was an unbelievable dust bowl with choking and unbearable dust making it hard to see lines! My contacts were shrivling up as I was pre-riding!

Each class had huge fields and the A's were no different I managed a 2nd row position and was able to be in the top 20-25 when the gun went off. Not great but hey, it's training. With each lap, I seemed to feel better. I was abel to pick dudes off and aim for the next guy and bridge up...and repeat the process. By the closing laps, my teammates were by the sidelines yelling at me for some reason. Then a dim light bulb went off and as I went by a corner, I yelled at Batey: Dude, is that the chase group??" And he's like "Well, YES! Bridge up there mate!" in his best Manchester accent. I had kept consistent lap times and had bridged to the train trying to catch Fuentes and my team mate Baker, who were crushing it. By the end, I think I sneaked in the top 10 by hooking up with and out sprinting some of the folks in that train, but we'll see. I haven't seen teh results. It's a training race though fer cryin' sakes.Boups, the Garmin-loving entity that he is, brought me a brand new Garmin Forerunner 305 to try out from his store. So he strapped me up and he downloaded all the data. So sick, these things! Apparently, I did run some super consistent lap times. Not scorchers but diesel train-ish. I felt springy out of the corners and I guess the best part is to see my heart rate increase up to and through the last lap. In other words, I got better as the (short) race wore on.

Lastly, the Daily Camera did an article on CU's taking-over of the Short track series. Youo can read it all here. But they got a good shot of my boy Batey in teh White Sex Oakley Hincapies at the A race last week (see main picture at the top). That's me back there behind the Jelly Belly dude, no. 22. Rock on.

The last Boulder Short Track occurred this past Wednesday. It was an absolute throw down. It was "double coupon" night...2x the points for your results so the field was HUGE. The course was the longest of the series with so many tight 180's it looked to suit me and my BMX background. You have to JAM out of those bends to get gaps on folks and it is all about the power output. I lined up next to Sager, Ward and Colby and virtually everyone wanted front row positioning so the front line was like 25 people large (about 15 -20 in the row behind) and all trying to hole shot into a much smaller space.

Becker yelled 3,2,1 go! and it was like a full on motocross start. Braaaaaaaaaaaaaap! Chaos! Dudes bumping, crashing....i literally had my head down and elbows out...not to take people out...but to protect myself! I navigated through the chaos and didn't win the hole shot but was safely in the top 6-8 (I will not be keeping this phat position for long...). Things bottleneck up on 1/2 the first lap into those above mentioned 180 degree sections. Brady Kappius comes flying by me trading paint in this corner and we all back up. I hop off, 'cross style and run as do some other dudes and jump back on. So many dudes on such a tight spot. Crazy! So as the attrition sets in, lap after lap. I am trying to figure out how I feel. I am going SO HARD it is incredible. I am getting near what I put out in CX (not there yet) so am averaging about 172 with spikes at 180. This said, I felt almost sick on the last 2 laps. Literally like "Man, I better stop and sit down" sick. Crazy. If I could graph the night, it's something like this:So I finished up totally spent, like 24th, worst personal result but still smiling and satisfied where the body is going. Totally different than last year and years prior. I think I was in the mid 20's overall in the A's having done 4 of the 8 races. This husband/daddy/worker can't complain! These mo-fos are FAST!

So as I write this, my reminder pops up like it does every Friday for me at 8AM MST. It makes me smile. It gets my juices flowing for Belgium. My plans are coming together. I got good news yesterday I'll share when 100% confirmed but as it relates to where I'll be staying for the 10 days in Belgium, it'll be total PRO style! Think Transitions2. Dreaming....

So at 5:30PM tonight and I should have been rolling out to head down to the Research Center but the hail was coming down like you wouldn't have believed. Trees bending side ways and flash floods. Classic late day thunder boomers. By 6:15...calm, cool and beautiful.

The racing tonight was great. Super fast course and nice and perfectly tacky due to the rain....no dust either! Pretty big field again in the A's.

Before the racing I saw a Sycip kit warming up. I noticed it was an old friend from the Left Coast, Aaron Bonar. Great to see you man! Hope you enjoy Boulder.

I wanted to test the legs today and went for the hole shot. I should have grabbed it but settled in for 4th and held it for a lap or two. Sitting in, I finally got a chance to see some of Mike West's tactics. Man, is he savvy. He made the split happen, I stayed with it and then went on to just play with us (OK, maybe not 'us' but certainly me and some other chumps who couldn't hold that wheel!). He put in another HUGE surge to make another split in lap 3 (maybe 4?) and I couldn't cover to (sorry Ward!). So I stayed in the top 10 and fairly comfortably (well, red lining but feeling good) until 1.5 to go and I start developing a slow leak in the rear. Beat! Any carving resulted in the rear tire folding over so I literally had to ride at like 3/4 speed! So many dudes came by me at the very end I was bummed but I still think I got in the top 15. We'll see. Big time fun though! Collin created another very unique and very fast course.

In classic fashion, Brandon roles up in just about every Dopers Suck item he's got. Shirt, sweat bands, socks...you name it. Hilarious.

Tonight was the 5th Boulder Racing STXC race and my 2nd. Fairly big pro field again and the conditions were way better than the first time. The heat and dust were way down. The light rains helped that.

Colin B did a fantastic job with this course tonight. Tight and twisty...very BMX-y. Fast where it needed to be but did not favor roadies by any means (more on that later). Tons of 180 degree turns to power out of and lots of places where you needed some serious MTB expertise to know exactly what gear to be in....especially this "V" apex that has you going big ring/12 down and a radical swing up. Gear selection was huge.

Warming up the body felt decent, the mind was into it, the vibe was great and tons of my friends were there. Golden. Then, I saw some dude in the Cat 3's wash out and face plant so violently (his head schwacked the ground and bounced) that I felt my sphincter pucker.

The pro men line up and we proceed to wait. I started on a HUGE front row line with like 20 dudes. Then about 3 rows behind me. Big field. My start was decent like top 10 and I am still trying to control myself and not blow my wad trying to take out holeshots (at least not yet until I can handle the repercussions of that exertion) and practice settling in. The usual suspects were there, Colby Pearce, Mike West, The WB looked good and the gaggle of Trek factory guys in their fairly bling white Nikes. Very PRO.

Then, the crashes started.

In lap 2 of 6, like 3 roadies wash out. I pick my way around them, literally bunny hopped one. This kid whom I've seen training on the road from San Jose. San Jose kid is strong and bridges back to me and drops me. Lap 3 or 4 my bro Troy takes a digger (Tuba I hope you are OK man! I looked for you after thee race! My heart was in my throat when you crashed else I would've shouted at you. Looked nasty). I dodge that and continue on. Bell lap. San Jose kid who crashed in front of me YET AGAIN goes down this time bad. Not moving. Face in the dirt. I stop, Colin B stops tons of spectators come in. He moves a bit so we're off. Honestly, my legs are turning again but my head was so out of the game. I hear the bell in the back and it wakes me up. I swear to you it was like that scene in Saving Private Ryan...that beach scene when Tom Hanks gets shell shocked then comes to when some kid is yelling at him. Kind of like that. The bell was the kid yelling at me.

I finished strong-ish and can't complain. The WB continues to be better than rock solid. Amazing. I thought he pulled out the W tonight but I think he podiumed. So strong. SO MANY ROCKY MOUNT'ERS out there cheering tonight. Rad. THANK YOU! Boups and Longman in particular. So rad to hear you. The spit coming out of my mouth was preventing me from saying thank you while racing.

Longman was snapping the photos tonight as was Joe Strandell of Peloton Photo. He'll have those posted tune so keep an eye out.

Tuba Brown told me I have to scope out Ride with Nick Martin. It's awesome. Local Boulder MTB Pro with a lot of good thoughts, pics and things to say. Not sure if I met this guy before but I think I saw him hit the deck at our Short Track the other night. We also share nice MTB-inspired bloody mess knee wounds. Nick, just what precisely is this body part you snapped a photo of? If it's what I think it is, you should really wipe better. (kidding). Mine was not unlike this mess after Ned took a piece out of me one day.Anyhoo, Nick's got a rad blog for Class-A time wasting.

Just a couple of random shots from our home girl Cynthia to show people what the course was like. For out-of-towners having a look-see, you can see our beautiful Flat Iron mountains in the back ground.